"B.O.R.G." – The Robot We Call "GOVERNMENT"

Much has been said about the nature of government and how it
"should" serve the interests of the "people" or the
"public". Unfortunately, I can think of no government on the planet that
fits this description – and in fact I have come to the conclusion that the
description itself is a mechanism intended to deceive the public, thereby
hiding the true nature of government from those to be governed.

The description below is a parable or metaphor for government as
it really is and always has been.
Those who give faith more credence than truth will take issue with it; but
those who love truth, and who won't accept comforting falsehoods in the name of
faith, will recognize its validity in the real world.

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THE B.O.R.G. ROBOT

Origin of the B.O.R.G.
"Robot"

Many years ago, some eight thousand to be precise – or not
so precise – a group of kings and chieftains in
Sumer
(now southern
Iraq),
got together and decided they were tired of fighting with each other over local
resources. The bloodshed for arable land, water rights, mineral deposits,
seaport access, and slaves was just getting to be too much to bear the cost of.
So they formed a cartel – a shared power monopoly – choosing to cooperate
henceforth instead of continuing to compete. From a business standpoint you'd
say their "product" was power over others – their industry,
"power brokerage". This was consistent with their ethic: "Might
Makes Right" that was accepted by many in that era.

To accomplish their ends they traded specific segments of
their power/authority to others in exchange for services rendered. For
instance, they would appoint a Master Tax Collector, upon whom they would
bestow the privilege of stealing from other (less powerful) people. In return
for this delegated privilege they expected to receive the lion's share of the
taxes thus collected. The Master Tax Collector, in turn, was authorized to hire
whatever thugs he wished to go out and do the dirty work of enforcing the tax
collection – rewarding them in turn for their efforts. This process of
delegating authority is what we today call hierarchy.

Through this invention of the power brokerage cartel
"government" was born. And in the years that followed, the bigger
businesses and organized religions adopted the very same model for their own
development – and for their relationships with one another. Today, Big
Business, Organized Religion, and Government (The B.O.R.G.), the institutions
that most of us have been duped into believing exist to serve the public, are
in fact the central causes of almost all societal problems.

On the Nature of
Machines

The most general and accurate definition of a machine is
"any device, tangible or intangible, that augments or extends one's
intelligence" – where intelligence is defined as "the ability to
predict or control events in one's environment." In this sense, government
may be thought of as a machine designed to forever increase the power and
wealth of those who own it. Today that machine incorporates modules and
components in all of the world's important institutions, be they social,
financial, religious, corporate, educational, charitable, legal, or military.
So it is technically correct to say that government, in this broad sense of the
word, has become an evil robot.

Characteristics of the
Evil Robot

Like any machine, the robot of government can be
characterized by its structure, its functions, and the behavioral rules that
have been built into it. It is further characterized by its meta-rules – which
is to say the rules about the rules. The meta-rules determine how the rules can
be changed (or not), who has the authority to change them, and by what means
and under what circumstances permitted changes can be made. There also exist
meta-meta-rules that determine who may know about the details of the rules,
what may be said about them in public, and which ones are intended to be kept
secret from the public. The following section provides a concise specification
of the more important characteristics of the robot we know as government.

Mission (The Robot's Prime Directive): To
serve the interests of its creators – forever increasing their wealth and power
over others, in accordance with the Power Ethic (might makes right).

Awareness: The
robot has a high level of awareness, but lacks awareness of its own awareness
and has no conscience whatever. The robot's awareness includes the determinants
of its internal states and can evaluate the performance of each of its internal
components.

Construction: The
robot is highly complex and is comprised of many hierarchically organized
components and modules, including perceptors, effectors, and both internal and
external communicators. It also has "thinking" components that
include memory storage and recall as well as logic and math. In addition, the
robot has remote components that are not obviously part of it, yet which are
controlled by the robot and/or its makers. Most of its components are people.
Most of its modules are organizations comprised of people.

Control: The
robot is run by an operating system, the "prime directive" of which
is its mission. The operating system permits no component or module thereof to
interfere with its mission – nor can the prime directive be altered by means of
"parts" replacement. Only a very few elite individuals are able to
directly influence the robot's programming – and they are very careful about
who gets invited to join their club.

Parts Replacement: Many,
though not all, of the robots components and modules are replaceable. Some can
only be replaced by the robot's makers and their delegates. Some can be
replaced by the robot itself. Others can be replaced by the public; but only
using the tools and methods built into the robot for this purpose; and only at
those times that the robot is programmed to permit such replacement.

Response to
"Malfunctioning" Parts:

The
robot is able to tell if one of its parts, components, or parts is
performing in support of the robot's mission – or not – and, if not, it
can repair itself.

If a
particular part is not critical to the robot's mission and is performing
poorly or not at all, the robot will simply ignore the part.

If a
part is performing in a way that threatens to hinder the robot's mission,
the robot's first response will be to isolate the part from the rest of
the system (without removing it), so the hindrance becomes ineffectual.

If the
malfunctioning part continues to hinder the robot in its mission, the
robot will remove the part from its system and replace it or have the
public replace it.

If the
robot sees the part that has been removed as a continuing threat to its
mission, it will first attempt to isolate the part from the public, so no
one can re-deploy it within the robot's system.

Failing
in this, the robot will take whatever steps are required to nullify the
threat – often destroying the part removed without compunction. To this
end it has killed millions of human people without the slightest remorse –
and it will probably kill millions more.

Success of the Robot

The robot has been doing its job successfully for some eight
thousand years! Although its makers are long gone, their (philosophical) heirs
are still with us and the robot still serves their interests extremely well.

Since the robot is not aware of its awareness, it would be
incorrect to call it a "person" and it would therefore be incorrect
to call it "immoral" any more than it would be correct to call a
sword immoral. Unfortunately, many of the robot's components and modules are people, who choose to act on the
robot's behalf. Their behavior can be properly characterized as
immoral.

Immoral or not, it remains to be seen whether the robot is immortal.
If so, it can only be destroyed by its own actions – and this is a likely
outcome, because the robot is parasitic,
feeding on the public at large that is its host – while creating nothing of
intrinsic value. Like most parasites, it will probably destroy its host and
itself with it, since it cannot exist without those who nurture it.

I have no doubt of the truism that it is evil to nurture
parasites. If you agree, then you must decide what you are willing to do to
avoid nurturing this particularly destructive parasite. If no one nurtured it,
it would disappear – but this is an unlikely outcome, because the lure of power
over others is very seductive to those who have been dominated by others all
their lives.

Make a decision. Take a stand.

For much more on this subject, visit

Titanians.org where you will find a compendium of information on Ethics, Law, and Government.